Degeneracy and relativistic microreversibility relations for collisional-radiative equilibrium models.

Abstract

We present the relativistic expressions of standard nonrelativistic microreversibility relations that can be used in collisional-radiative equilibrium models to calculate the transition rates including the free electron degeneracy for collisional excitation and deexcitation, collisional ionization and three-body recombination, dielectronic capture and autoionization, photoexcitation and photodeexcitation, and radiative recombination and photoionization. Semiempirical expressions or more refined calculations can be used for the cross sections of interest as long as they are calculated by taking into account either nonrelativistic, relativistic, or ultrarelativistic effects for both the bound and free electrons. The bound and the free electrons should be treated on the same footing. This is crucial for the internal consistency of the approach valid at arbitrary degeneracy and relativistic degrees.